584 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, L889 



hinder margin to tit tbe fingers. This is a very effective tool, both in 

 its grip and the handiness with which its contents may be conveyed to 

 the lamp. (Plate LXIX.) 



There is not so great a variety of apparatus in the hand of tbe abo- 

 riginal leather worker as will be found at present in possession of the 

 civilized craftsmen, yet there are several classes of tools worthy of at- 

 tention. 



The pre-Columbian butcher's or flaying knife has not been sufficiently 

 studied. This will form the subject of a subsequent chapter. 



The leather cutting knife is also worthy of careful study. Among 

 the Eskimo collections it goes by the name of woman's knife or ulu. 

 Among our modern industries this peculiar Eskimo form has a curious 

 history. When women ceased to be leather workers and went into the 

 kitchen they carried the ulu with them, but transferred it to another 

 function, that of meat chopping. On the other hand, when men became 

 leather workers, they borrowed this same implement from the women, 

 and it may be seen any day in the saddler's shop. All of these woman's 

 knives have crescent-shaped or plano-convex blades set in handles of 

 wood, musk-ox horn, antler, walrus ivory, and other substances peculiar 

 to each region. The blades are of slate, jade, or metal and are kept 

 sharp by rubbing with the incisor tooth of a beaver. Now there is no 

 tool more common in our collections than this same knife. It is safe to 

 say that no Eskimo girl or woman is without one or more. 



As we come further south the chipped thin blade takes the place of 

 the smooth blade of the Eskimo, but only in very restricted areas has 

 auy observer reported the Indians as using stone blades for cutting 

 leather. 



Seeing the great numbers of this particular tool among modern sav- 

 ages, it is incumbeut upon the archaeologist to look out among his 

 specimens, the scissors, the shoemaker's knife, and the saddler's knife of 

 pre-historic peoples. He will probably find them among the boxes he 

 has been labeling spear-heads. 



The north Alaskan Eskimo type of scrapers consists of a grip more 

 or less fitted to the hand and a chipped blade, with a varying length 

 of shaft between them. In the handle the different type-forms grow 

 out of the provisions made for accommodating the thumb, the first 

 two fingers, the last two fingers, and the palm of the workman. 



In the front end of this handle the blade is inserted in a rude socket ; 

 the rear of the handle slopes down like a Derby hat to form the palm 

 rest. On the left side is the thumb groove, on the upper side are 

 the first linger grooves, on the right side and bottom is a great sweeping 

 excavation which maybe called the finger pocket. On grasping one 

 of these implements one is struck with the ingenuity with which every 

 part of the hand is brought into its maximum activity and every 

 necessity of the operation provided for. (Plates LXXII to LXXIX.) 



The palm is provided with a nicely rounded surface for pushing, the 



